Texas controlled hunt

[WildWill]

I've posted a couple of my Texas controlled hunts on here and figured I'd add this years. Figured it be a nice contrast to @Gellar snowy, -3, Midwestern deer drives .


This hunt will be at either Inks Lake or Longhorn Caverns State Park I won't know which one I'll be hunting until compartments are assigned Tuesday morning. The hunt will begin after a orientation Tuesday at 10am. Decided to head down today get camp setup and not have to mess around with getting up in the middle of the night and drive 6 hours to be there at 10am. Dropped the kids off at school came back home loaded the truck kissed the wife and baby and I'm on my way. My first stop is in 144 miles at Buc-ees for some lunch and "camping and hunting " supplies. Assuming I have good service (major park outside of Austin so I should) gonna try and do a real live hunt.

 

[TOGIE]

grab a texas cheesesteak burrito for me!

 

[npaden]

What are you hunting?

 

[Greybeard]

Good luck compadre!

 

[WildWill]

What are you hunting?

I have tags for two whitetail deer antlerless or spike buck no more then one spike, unlimited hogs, and unlimited exotics. Talking to the hunt manager there's a real possibility of killing a axis deer. A axis or two is my best case scenario but I'll be happy with a couple whitetail does to turn into sausage.

 

[WildWill]

Pulling out of the fort worth buc-ees now little over 3 hours more to go. Grabbed some lunch and food to cook in camp. @TOGIE solid recommendation on the Texas Philly burrito id never had one usually just get the brisket. Although it wasn't very beard friendly thank God I had wet wipes in the truck.

 

[WildWill]

Before

After



Home for the next few days. Just have to figure out what I'm gonna cook for dinner. Kicking myself for not bringing some catfish tackle could've put the bells on and fished all night.

 

[WildWill]

Gorgeous spot! Having some breakfast now and gonna head up to the orientation soon.

 

[JV842]

Used to go jump off the granite cliffs at Inks Lake when I was a kid….is a beautiful area

 

[WildWill]

Met the other hunter's some nice guys, had orientation, drew blinds, and assigned our staff member who showed us our area's. I drew blind number #5 "The Boneyard blind" at Inks lake. It's maybe a 5 minute drive from camp. My staff member was a extremely nice man who after a bit of talking I found out was 80. I wouldn’t have guessed a day over 65 hope I'm in that good of shape if I make it that long. We headed over to checkout my spot a nice box blind with a feeder about 80 yards in front (welcome to Texas). On other controlled hunts with assigned blinds I've been able to get permission to hunt my compartment outside of the blind. It was made very clear to me that won't be happening on this hunt and that's fine. Good news the blind is comfy and deer sign in front of it plentiful. Didn't get any pics while I was being shown around but will get a few when I get back this afternoon.

Back at camp now gonna eat lunch and head to the blind around 2pm.

 

[WildWill]

It's go time.

 

[JV842]

It's go time.
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Nice blind, u going w “if its brown its down” or u going to see how it plays out for a tasty axis deer?

 

[JV842]

Maybe one of these days I will get drawn again!! Last time was archery Kerr WMA back 2000!
More so, I want one of my grandsons to get drawn on a cool hunt.
Good luck to u sir n hopefully we will be seeing a pic of a big axis buck

 

[WildWill]

Nice blind, u going w “if its brown its down” or u going to see how it plays out for a tasty axis deer?

Probably won't turn down a good shot at any legal deer other then a fawn. Texas has been better to me in the draws then my home state. Hoping my son can carry on with my luck but nothing yet always next year.

 

[npaden]

Just got dark here so I'm guessing you are field dressing a fat doe right now instead of doing an update on HuntTalk.

 

[JV842]

Just got dark here so I'm guessing you are field dressing a fat doe right now instead of doing an update on HuntTalk.

I’m crossing fingers for an axis or some other crazy exotic

 

[WildWill]

No axis but a doe is down. Total was 2 spikes and 2 does out of 8 hunters. Will post the story after I get some dinner.

 

[WildWill]

So the night started out slow and then took a interesting turn. About 5pm I had two guys hike across the road from a open area of the park into my hunt area. Looking at them through the binos looked like 2 younger guys probably around 18. They were about 600 yards on a ridge dead ahead of me. I text the hunt coordinator and long story short everything was back to normal by about 5:40pm. Sucks that all that had to go down at prime time but stuff happens. About 5 minutes later the first deer stepped out a fawn.
About 10 minutes later with 5 minutes of shooting light left a doe stepped out. I dropped her at 80 yards with one 200gr Partition from my 300 win mag. By the time I gathered my stuff it was dark out and in my rush I didn't get a Pic. They weighed her guts and all ( we were asked to not gut by the blinds but at the cleaning station) she was 72lb. She was aged at 2 and they took cwd samples.





Really good group of guy's and I enjoyed shooting the shit with the guy's at the cleaning station today. One guy killed a tank of a Texas doe 99.99lb we're calling it a hundred and was aged at around 8 years old. The other two shot spikes can't remember the weight but both smaller then the old doe.


Got back to camp and was starving had steak and potatoes for dinner. Anyway I'm off to bed gonna climb in the blind around 6am and see what the day brings.

 

[Wild Bill]

I dropped her at 80 yards with one 200gr Partition from my 300 win mag. … They weighed her guts and all ( we were asked to not gut by the blinds but at the cleaning station) she was 72lb.

Good sized pill for her.

 

[npaden]

Those deer down there sure are small. Up here they are quite a bit bigger, a good sized buck will be pushing 200 pounds. I haven’t ever shot a doe in Texas but I think I’m going to have to start, I’m over run with them on my new place.